EGR blocked and new plugs and wires...

[silvercoupe97]

...and it idled like MadTripper's car in this vid- http://www.madtripper.com/albums/Rebuild/talon_idle.wmv from his thread http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225005&highlight=egr+block+off, then it stopped running altogether. I did notice more backfiring but that's probably from my firing order (doubt that though since I can control that with dsmlink).
Here's the rundown, I installed BPR7ES plugs and new Accel wires and put a blockoff plate on, removed the EGR system (everything), left the three solenoids plugged in, and plugged the three vacuum nipples. It ran fine before I did this today btw.
The one thing that I didn't do, like the guy in the link was put the metal gasket back or any RTV between the plate and head. Can that little leak really cause my car from running? Is ther anything else to look for? Oh, one more thing, there was a line that led down the firewall with some sort of check valve...I think I read that it goes back to the gas tank(?), I don't know about that though...anyway, I closed that off with a short, sealed hose. Does that need to remain open?
Any help would be appreciated so that I can continue the troubleshooting process tomorrow morning.

*Notes*
My car ran fine before installing new plugs, wires, and EGR blockoff plate (EGR everything removed from engine bay and the three vacuum nipples plugged). After I was done, it ran like crap then worked it's way to not running.

John

 

[silvercoupe97]

For future searchers....
My problem was just like MadTripper's, it even sounded the same...except mine died, .
Come to find out, not only did I forget to plug the Maf back in but I also didn't seal the EGR plate with a gasket and it was leaking (it's aluminum, so I thought it would seal up...bah, nope), those were the only things that I had in common with some other EGR posts. Anyway, I plugged the Maf back in shortly after I found a post with that mentioned and tried to start it up just to see if that was problem and it wasn't. Today, I made a new gasket made out of my old cologne tin and put RTV on it just to make sure it had a good seal and put it onto my car, fingers were crossed and sure enough...my car started and ran like normal. I also removed the plug that I made for the hose that goes back to the gas tank (so it's been said) while my car was running and that made a difference in the way MY car idled (better), I don't know why but it did. Thanks to all those that helped.

In short, if you removed your EGR system or even just blocked off the valve, make sure you plugged you Maf back in and use the old gasket on the EGR valve if you can, since it's metal, for a good seal. You can also make a new one like most do. Note that the one that was in my car initially was no thicker than a soda can and very pliable.

What happens when you block off or remove the EGR system?......

After I got that all situated, I noticed that my car was running a little lean at idle, even with dsmlink, tuning the lean idle can be tricky (IMO). My car also started having idle issues..stalling, surging, blah, blah, blah...so, I unplugged and removed the ISC and that took car of it. My guess is that the EGR was a band-aid for my bad ISC in some ways because after I blocked it off my idle sucked and after I removed the ISC, it was fine again

So, back to what I was doing before all this...tuning for 20psi on my FPBig28